Balancing underfloor heating

liamolaighin

Hi there. I have a Nibe heatpump heating my house since 2013. Overall very happy with the system with underfloor upstairs and downstairs. The one thing I am interested im doing is making it more efficient and more even in terms of the heat around the house

I am currently messing with flow meters, thermostats and heating curves as I try to make the newly occupied rooms upstairs a bit warmer!

I'm based in Cork and I'd live to know if any installer is fitting autobalancing actuators. Has anyone retrofitted them to your system and did it have the desired effect. My house is approx 3000 sq feet and its hard to get that balance manually

corkgsxr

I'd suspect your not leaving enough time for everything to settle before adjusting again.

Start fresh. Set them all middle way and smaller rooms take some flow out and bigger add abit.

Let for a few days. Then make small changes and let for a few days.

If you want warmer rooms turn up the stat a degree or 2.

Bear in mind you have slow reacting system. You need to give it time to settle

liamolaighin

I know that tbh. I've improved things a good bit over the years but I suppose out of interest I was wondering if anyone has used the autobalancing actuators. In principle what they appear to do looks great. I'd love for there to be a low even heat throughout the house without having to adjust it. If the flow was controlled all that would be left would be to hot on the best heating curve for my house. I think 🀣

corkgsxr

If you set it even reasonably ok. Most underfloor systems are fine. No adjusting at all

Set your stats and forget. Want a warmer room up the stat.

Also bear in mind they won't be all on at once anyway. Room heats abit faster it shuts down faster.

It's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. And imo any salus stuff iv seen out there is not very user friendly.

Water John

The flow in each should 1.5 I think. Adjusting is to compensate for the length of pipe in each loop.

liamolaighin

The way mine is set up is a little different. I have some open zones with no stat so the flow guage and return valves are my only way to control these zones.

In other zones like bedrooms, bathrooms, office etc there is a thermostat. However my understanding is that it isn't used for setting desired temp as you would expect. Instead its a room based control of an actuator on the return pipe on the manifold. Therefore those zones are controlled by adjusting the flow gauge and by opening and closing the temp stat in the rooms

I think this makes getting the temp right a little tricky but again I'm probably being a bit fussy. My approach now is to get the coldest room right first and then turn down other rooms that are too hot bit by bit. But trying to do this while also maintaining a flow temp thats relatively low for economy.

corkgsxr

The control of heat is the thermostat.

If the room can't get enough flow the stat can't cut it out.

If they are getting flow then leave the thermostat do its job.



What rooms have none?

Water John

One thermostat can drive four actuators. Common areas like hallway might be on open loops and you could put on an actuator on these and link to a room thermostat. Some areas might be too hot and wasting oil.